The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1887-07-07

measure protected the innocent. Secre
tary Stanton, man of violent passions
and, therefore, when aroused, of blind
prejudice, was aided in his insane fury
by Andrew johnson, who had reasons
of his own for keeping alive storm
which prevented too close q scrutiny
into his own past associations and con.
duct. The mon of infamous class known
as detectives, developed by the war, and
cultivated by the secretary of war and
the secretary of state, where kings and
subordinate officers, were executors un-
der their own law, and instead of en-
couraging an opening of testimony, they
prosecuted all who were supposed to
know anything connected with the muir
der OF Lincoln and the attempted murder
of Seward. In this way a poor stage
carpenter, who innoccntly held Booths
horse on the night of the assassination
was sent to a living death, and poor DR..
Mudd, who treated tho broken ankle of
Booth, never dreaming of what caused
the accident, was glad to escape the gal
lows in sharing the carpenters punish
ment Mrs. Surratt, who was found
guilty OF keeping boarding house at
Washington, was hanged-to our national
shame through all time to come.
1t was death to any one known to have
seen, let alone associated with Booth,
and in this way mouths were closed in
fear, and consequently revelation of
the facts suppressed.
This affords key to the reasons for
Andrew Johnsons strange, contradicto-
ry and wild conduct on the occasion.
He out-Heroded Herod, which means
Stanton, in his angry denunciation of
men whom he afterwards, when in the
safety Of O subsided excitement, strange
| ly favored. And in this we can find the
only reasonable solution of his passing
| from one extreme to the other. On one
day he was furious in his demands to
have treason made odious by hanging
the traitors, from jeff Davis down. Not
| long after he shifted to the other extreme
that favored general amnesty, and was
remarkable for an equally heated de-
nunciation of the Radicals at the North
who would recognize Lincoln's mild re-
construction policy, based on forgive
ness and kind treatment.
President johnson felt that he was the
only man in all the world who was bene-
| fitted by the death of his predecessor,
and haunting him was fact that strange
| ly escaped attention at tho time. He
had not only been the boon companion
and confidential friend of Booth in times
past, but the assassins card was found
in the wrong box at Johnson's hotel,
famlliarly addressed to the Vice-Presi-
dent, asking for an interview on the
very day of the night on which the as
sassination occurred.
Less evidence than this hanged others,
and Stanton's blind rage and Johnson's
simulated fury saved Andrew johnson
| n 1NlltN Clo ont I
inrocent and guilty.
Much time and ink have been wasted
ovCr that recommendation to executive
clemency awarded Mrs. Surratt by the
court-martial that condemned her, and
an effort made to have us believe that it
was kept from the President.
The records show that this recommen-
datlon made part Of the proceedings
upon which the President had to pass.
Ii this were not SO the President was
guilty of an illegal act The fact is that
the recommendation to mercy was be-
fore the man who not only dared not
comply with the plea, but, in his fear,
actually hurried up the execution. And
this great advocate of the constitution,
furthermore, refused to recognize the
interference of civil tribunal that
sought to review the proceedings of O.
court-martial, as it had the right to do,
under a writ of habeas corpus.
Is it possible that Booth had the meet
ing with the VicePresident for which he
asked, and if SO did he tell the Vice
President of the awful work he had in
hand? If so, it may be that Andrew
johnson took this to be the vaporings of
a drunkard actor-and it is very likely
that his strange conduct came rather
from fear than from the workings of a
guilty conscience.
AS Judge Advocate of tho Extraordi-
nary Court of Inquiry that sought to in
Vestlgate the military conduct of General
Buell., was brought in close association
with Andrew johnson, and what L learn
ed OF him on that occasion gives me o
better opportunity for forming judgment
than falls to the lot of the many who
ascribo all his actions to high patriotic
impulses.
1t may be that the future HISTORIAN
weighing these facts in an impartial
mind, will como to the same conclusion
that l have in regard to President john
son. But this is doubtful. A thought
full mind has told us that history is the
politics of the past and the present, and
politics mean the prejudices and current
beliefs of the people.
have been struck in this connection
by the remarkable similarity of conduct
on the part of johnson and that of
Macbeth. When the murderer of that
greatest and most perfect tragedy is
brought face to face with his awful
crime, he fairly roars in his simulated
wrath. The grand imagination of the
kingly assassin that has given us some
of the purest expressions of philosophi-
cal poetry give place to the miserable
rant of vulgar mind, Macbeth, how
over, WAS carrying the murdered Duncan
on his conscience, while johnson was
probably driven to desperation by the
knowledge Of an indiscretion that had
the same dreadful consequences loom
ing into immediate oxisthnce.
1 would rather have been the associate
of Booth and possessed of his dreadful
, secret, if the awful choice were forced
upon me, and have been hanged for it,
than to have lived through years to my
4 grave haunted by tho thought of that
| DOOR woman WrinOino her mOthorlV